Motorists who are disgruntled over the loss of parking during Douglas’s promenade redevelopment might soon be able to pay to park on the former Summerland site.

A planning application has been submitted that supports comments by Department of Infrastructure Minister Ray Harmer MHK in last week’s House of Keys sitting in which he said that up to 51 vehicles would be able to park there as part of what was described in the Keys as a ’park and walk’ scheme.

The charge for parking on the site will be £1 a day.

Whether that will be popular remains to be seen.

After all, the Summerland site is 1.6 miles away from the Jubilee Clock and there are many free parking spaces in Douglas closer to the town centre.

There have been a number of complaints as the works on the promenade have cut parking places on Central Promenade and Queen’s Promenade.

Before the work began, the only restriction on that area was that vehicles could park there for a maximum of 24 hours.

Some people who work in the town centre parked there for free and then walked into town.

Free parking on roads near Central Promenade and Queen’s Promenade is often hard to find but spaces are available.

Motorists can also park for free in areas with no parking restrictions at all closer to the town centre than Summerland.

For instance, commuters could park up on Ballakermeen Drive for free and walk just under a mile to get to work, or park on the Battery Pier for £2 up to 18 hours and walk just over half a mile to Lord Street.

According to the planning application, vehicle access to the Summerland car park will be via a ’newly constructed temporary crossing from King Edward Road, passing over the adjacent Manx Electric Railway lines’.

The application states that the car park and the facility will be lit with temporary lights and that it will be accessible to pedestrians.

But there is no indication of crossing points being added for pedestrians either on King Edward Road or the bottom of Summer Hill.

The nearest pedestrian crossing point to get to the promenade walkway would be on Queen’s Promenade near the Hydro Hotel.

However, that crossing is not in use while the promenade improvement scheme is under way, meaning the closest crossing is near the site of the former Imperial Hotel, just over three quarters of a mile away, providing walkers can navigate the busy morning traffic coming down Summer Hill from Onchan.

During the House of Keys debate, Mr Harmer said: ’Discussions will continue on an ongoing basis with individual residents and businesses to address wherever possible parking issues that may arise throughout the reconstruction of the new promenade.’

The minister was challenged by Clare Bettison (Douglas East), who said that the proposed Summerland parking could be used to help businesses at the north end of the promenade.

We have previously reported parking issues affecting businesses such as New Manila restaurant on Queen’s Promenade, which has lost trade as parking has been lost in the area while work takes place.

Miss Bettison then said: ’My concern then would be that that does become predominantly parking for people working for the whole day.’

And she asked the DoI Minister to designate some of the spaces for short term parking to aid businesses at that end of the promenade.

However, Mr Harmer said that while it could be looked at, he would not be able to give any ’cast-iron’ guarantees.

The planning application reference number is 19/00119/B.